Technology Description

Heart disease is the lead cause of mortality among diabetic patients in the U.S. UC San Diego researchers have developed a method to treat diabetic cardiomyopathy by gene therapy using an enzyme specific for the removal of a single sugar molecule from proteins such as transcription factors. The researchers demonstrated that elevated extra-cellular glucose levels result in impaired calcium cycling in myocytes, leading to impaired cardiac contractility and poor myocardial performance, by a mechanism involving O-linked glycosylation of nuclear proteins. They found that these effects can be reversed by gene therapy with an enzyme, O-GlcNAcase, which can remove specific O-linked hexosamines from proteins. Delivery of viral vectors encoding O-GlcNAcase to myocytes from diabetic rats markedly improved calcium flux and contractile function.

Patent Status

Country	Type	Number	Dated	Case
United States Of America	Issued Patent	7,919,475	04/05/2011	2004-071

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Contact

University of California, San Diego Technology Transfer Office / invent@ucsd.edu / tel: View Phone Number. Please reference Tech ID #19673.

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